our nation, because technology empowers the individuals in truly historic ways, and technology also overwhelms large, centralized bureaucracies -- think our u.s. government -- rendering them over time increasingly incompetent even if they repain powerful. and, of course, as we will hear from at least one of our panelists, technology is also a tool to enforce transparency and accountability. as i mentioned, today's topic is really the state of business in america today, but i start with technology because it sets the frame for everything we need to do. and it limits the time, frankly, in which we have to do it. i want to start, if i may, with two anecdotes. recently i was on a sunday morning newscast, "this week with george stephanopoulos," and i had the opportunity to debate paul krugman. you know paul krugman. and in the course of this debate, i made what i thought was a pretty basic statement. i said, you know, when we think about the health of the u.s. economy, we have to remember that a private sector job and a public sector job are not the same things. a private sector job pays